Modern telecommunications devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. This has lead users of telecommunications devices to become increasingly complacent with the presence of such devices at nearly all times during one's daily routine. Such telecommunication devices include traditional desktop and laptop computers as well as smaller devices that are typically carried on a user's person such as smart phones and now even wearable devices such as Internet-connected watches.
As the prevalence of telecommunications devices increases, so do opportunities to exploit such devices to harvest data associated with device users. Many device users are at least generally aware that various sources may harvest data regarding how devices are actively used such as, for example, an online-retailer saving data related to a user's search history to later use the harvested data to perform targeted advertising based on the harvested data. However, even savvy device users may be unaware that various sources may also harvest data while devices are being passively used. For example, an application that a user has installed on a smartphone may be programmed to access a microphone or camera of the smartphone while the phone is not being actively used but rather is sitting on a coffee table while the user watches television. In some cases, the user may have agreed to the application accessing the hardware in an end user license agreement (EULA) despite not having read the EULA. In contrast, some applications are designed to operate covertly such that the user may never even know that the application has been installed onto the device. Accordingly, it may be tedious, or even impracticable, for a typical telecommunications device user to fully understand and monitor the channels through which various device resources may be exploited by applications to harvest data.